Software for Estate Agents

Choosing the best software for your estate agents business is not easy. It would be challenging for a professional business analyst with the amount of competition and products available, let alone an estate agent who simply wants a great system to add value and efficiency to their business. Larger companies and corporations spend huge sums of money and time investigating the market to ensure they make the correct choice but even then they often fall foul of overspend and lengthy delays...

So in an attempt to help you find the right technical solution and perhaps more importantly the right technical partner, here's an overview of some of the key considerations and questions you should ask of an estate agency software vendor:

1. Cloud or Desktop software?

Cloud software is the latest buzzword, not only within the estate agency sector but within business as a whole. Most modern business software systems, including software for estate agents, are developed for the cloud. The differences are fairly straightforward and explained as follows -

Pros:

Fully accessible software system wherever you are, as long as you have an internet connection you can manage and operate your business from anywhere in the world

Accessible from any device - Smartphones, Tablets, Desktop PCs

Secure data - never again will you have to worry about the security of your data as your cloud based system will be fully backup up instantly

Instant available upgrades

Still available if you are subject to hardware theft, fire or flood - you can simply work from any other computer, anywhere without any loss of data

Cons:

Can't operate without an internet connection

Desktop based - This is where the software program and all data is physically located and stored on your computer system within your office.

Pros:

As the program and data are fully installed and held locally, it will be available with or without an internet connection

Cons:

Access is limited only to your office

Limited to use (only assessable via a PC)

No instant offsite back up

Slow upgrade path

Subject to theft, fire, flood and electrical supply failure

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering new estate agency software-Find out more:

2. Full browser based technology?

One of the key benefits of cloud software is that it is, or should be, a true browser based technology and many estate agency systems are not. This is a critically important consideration and something you should understand and insist on. So how do you know what is and what isn't full browser based cloud software?

The key to understanding this is really straightforward, as you will from the title expect, the software should run in an internet browser (i.e. Google Chrome, Internet explorer, Safari etc). This is fairly obvious but of equal importance is the ability to run the software on multiple tabs (i.e. allow you to use more than one element of the software at the same time).

For the busy estate agent, having software that is flexible to your often fast paced daily activity is essential. So when you are halfway through entering a property and the phone goes with someone wanting to make a viewing appointment. Having the ability to simply stop what you were doing, open a new tab with the viewing diary, make the appointment and continue where you left off without any issue is such an important requirement.

3. How secure is my cloud software?

Hosting

Software hosting and security are points rarely raised by estate agents considering the move to the cloud for their estate agency software. This is mostly left to trust or perhaps lack of understood...To be clear, hosting is the technical term relating specifically to where, physically, your cloud software and data is held and run from. All web based technology works in this way and as with most things in life, there are the good, the bad and the plain ugly, to coin a phrase... Not wishing to trivialise the issue but it is one of the most critical points that should be considered in your decision making process.

As a developer of cloud based products this is an issue we take incredibly seriously, our chosen hosting company is Rackspace, take our word for just how good they are, take a look at some of their clients and judge for your self - Rackspace Customer Testimonials.

To name drop just a few who use Rackspace: MOD, The British Army, The Royal Navy, Department of Transport, NHS Direct, Transport for London, Vodafone, Vue Virgin Trains, Confused.com, go-compare and Which...

For any hosting company to have a contract with the MOD (Ministry of Defence) you can only imagine just how tough a contract this must have been to get and the sort of hoops they would have been made to jump through to get it. And why, in spite of the not inconsiderable cost have we chosen Rackspace as of hosting partner.

Security

With regard to security, again something often not considered by estate agents when considering cloud software, is just how secure is your cloud software and data? Website security for sites that require secure access, like banks, credit cards and online payment systems are built using sophisticated encryption and authentication systems. This level of security should be a prerequisite for cloud based estate agency business systems.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering hosting and security for your new estate agency software:

4. Training for the cloud

Training, certainly within the independent estate agency sector, is often over looked by the busy estate agent. The move to the cloud is often the catalyst for the training policy to be reviewed and perhaps renewed. It is therefore, critical that your chosen software supplier has a strong training ethos and importantly able to offer onsite, face to face training at affordable prices.

User training is an area of our business that we take very seriously. We understand that a user isn't only dependent on the software for their day to day business but for their future as well and helping them fully understand the functionality and usability of the estate agency software will make for happy long-term customer relationships.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering training for your new estate agency software - Find out more:

5. Cutting edge future proof technology

With over 30 years' experience in building software systems for the estate agency sector we are definitely not the new kids on the block. We have a long heritage of building high quality cutting edge technology and have a reputation for excellence as well as innovation dating back to the pre-internet years. During this time, as you might imagine, we've learnt a thing or two about the estate agency sector. Indeed many of our staff are ex estate agents so have a clear understanding of the requirements, additionally, our development path is a combination both user requests, ideas and new innovation introduced or developed by ourselves.

The latest version of our estate agency software is a thoroughbred cloud software system, fully browser based, built using the very latest technology and hosted by Rackspace.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering cutting edge and future proof technology for your new estate agency software - Find out more:

Future Proof software for estate agents

The I.T. (Information Technology) industry as a whole is perhaps the most dynamic and fast moving of any other business sector and none more so than estate agency. At Resource Techniques we recognise that our business is to ensure our clients have the best and most (technologically speaking) up-to-date software system available.

To this end, we have a team of developers and UI (User Interface) engineers focused and fully committed to ensuring our product remains at the top of the industry. This service and ongoing upgrade path comes to our clients as an inclusive part of our service, it doesn't come at extra cost or contract extension... Innovation is an integral part of our business ethos, it's in our DNA.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering future proof technology for your new estate agency software - Find out more:

A trusted technology partner

With over 30 years experience in providing technology to our estate agency clients, we have an outstanding track record of offering the very best innovation and customer focused service to our clients. We are still proud to be privately owned and ran and our chairman and founder Ian Penman is still part of our business today.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering future for your new estate agency software -Find out more:

6. Software for Estate agents

The above is focused on the technical solutions and underlying technology that should be considered when choosing new software for your estate agency business. Below focuses on the software system itself and addresses the areas that should be carefully considered.

Choosing the best software for your estate agency

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering your new estate agency software - Find out more:

CRM (Client Relationship Manager) based software

People are rarely, within the life cycle of their time as a potential home moving client, more than one type of client (i.e. tenant, applicant, vendor, and landlord); but they could be one, two or all of the above. For this reason, we took a fresh approach to agency software by making a CRM based product that enables the agent to manage and prolong the relationship from perhaps just a few weeks or months, to a much more long term approach and we call this software for life.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering your new estate agency software -Find out more:

Sales management and sales progress system

Client contact or the lack of it is perhaps the most frequent complaint for the hard working estate agent. The issue is though, not that you've been doing nothing; it is that the information is often simply not passed to the vendor. So in spite of the fact that you have been running around like a headless chicken, trying your best to sell their property, you get dis-instructed and no sale no fee means NO FEE! Our system therefore offers systems to manage and maintain this process, keep the client happy, keep the instruction longer and help you make the fee.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering your new estate agency software -Find out more:

Dynamic property and applicant sharing (Multi Office firms)

There are huge benefits to the multiple office firms by having access to the firms' properties and applicants. We have built our underlying technology to be ultimately infinitely saleable, meaning that if you have one, two, two hundred or two thousand offices our software system will operate, function and perform in exactly the same way.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering your new estate agency software -Find out more:

Electronic personal and office diary system

A paper office diary is, for some, the ONLY option... Even in this increasingly technology filled world it is almost seen as sacrilege to suggest a move away from paper. Although for the more technologically enlightened a paper diary is seen as almost prehistoric and the prospect of operating without an electronic diary system is unthinkable. The benefits of electronic over paper to a busy estate agent are many, but to highlight just a few

No more Tip-Ex - No paper, no Tip-Ex. If appointments are changed or cancelled, simply move them to another date or delete them

No more shouting across the office 'who's got the diary?' With an electronic diary effectively everybody that has a computer, tablet or smartphone has a diary, wherever they are.

No need to photocopy the diary on a busy Saturday. As above, with a smartphone, iPad or laptop you have a diary wherever you are.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering your new estate agency software -Find out more:

Quality graphical HTML email output

Every business is judged, rightly or wrongly, by the quality of their brand and the delivery mechanisms they utilise. We are all guilty of this, to a greater or lesser extent; we quickly judge a company, service or product within a few seconds of first seeing it purely by its initial appearance... Estate agents are no different. This is why we had developed an HTML emailing technology to ensure that our clients deliver great looking, interactive, image rich email communication to their clients. Creating a great first impression and ensuring this is consistently delivered everytime.

Further information you may find useful in your decision making process when considering your new estate agency software -Find out more: